Paralegal study/degree as hobby or possible 2nd career

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Hi all, I am so glad I found this forum. I have been always interested in Laws field of knowledge although I had Bachelor degree in Eng. and currently work as Finance in Corporate world. Also I am at the beginning of 40 y/o, however I wonder if I want to get degree as Paralegal and study part-time or online, where I shall go? I am located in Toronto.

Also am I too old to pursue the extra study of Paralegals at current stage, I have plenty of spare time after work by the way.

Thanks in advance.

Edited June 10, 2015 by Louiemoonlight

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Canadian Business College and Herzing College both offer evening courses (starting at 6pm) for the one year paralegal studies program. I believe Everest shut down but I'm sure there are others in the area. I know that Herzing's classes are from Mon-Thurs and, if memory serves me right, CBC runs from Mon-Fri. Several people from my firm attended these private schools after work and received their licenses after passing the LSUC paralegal exam. I believe they both have payment plans and/or financial aid and should run somewhere close to $15k for the whole year including books.

You will also find plenty of people around your age attending these classes, so no, it's never too late.

I suggest doing some research into the different schools to figure out which ones best meets your situation, as I'm sure location and costs should be factored into your decision along with everything else.

Also, keep in mind that paralegals in Ontario are required to pay annual fees and such in order to maintain their licenses so it may be a waste if you are just considering further education but no intention to practice down the road (although the costs are lower for those who are not practicing).

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Hi all, I am so glad I found this forum. I have been always interested in Laws field of knowledge although I had Bachelor degree in Eng. and currently work as Finance in Corporate world. Also I am at the beginning of 40 y/o, however I wonder if I want to get degree as Paralegal and study part-time or online, where I shall go? I am located in Toronto.

Also am I too old to pursue the extra study of Paralegals at current stage, I have plenty of spare time after work by the way.

Thanks in advance.

Canadian Business College and Herzing College both offer evening courses (starting at 6pm) for the one year paralegal studies program. I believe Everest shut down but I'm sure there are others in the area. I know that Herzing's classes are from Mon-Thurs and, if memory serves me right, CBC runs from Mon-Fri. Several people from my firm attended these private schools after work and received their licenses after passing the LSUC paralegal exam. I believe they both have payment plans and/or financial aid and should run somewhere close to $15k for the whole year including books.

You will also find plenty of people around your age attending these classes, so no, it's never too late.

I suggest doing some research into the different schools to figure out which ones best meets your situation, as I'm sure location and costs should be factored into your decision along with everything else.

Also, keep in mind that paralegals in Ontario are required to pay annual fees and such in order to maintain their licenses so it may be a waste if you are just considering further education but no intention to practice down the road (although the costs are lower for those who are not practicing).

15k for the whole year is crazy expensive. I recommend you go to a public institution as they tend to be cheaper and more reputable. Seneca for example.

Ah, I did not know public colleges offer the part-time program too. Perhaps I should have mentioned that most of my colleagues went the private-college (and thus more expensive) route for the purpose of the expedited course and license.

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I have a day job that pays the bills but also leaves me with a fair bit of free time, which I would like to find a meaningful way to fill. I have no intention of leaving my job, so law school is out of the question, but I have a deep interest in the law and am considering a part-time career as a paralegal.

My question for those on here who have experience in the field is, will I be likely to find work or will I be wasting my time? My goal would be to start a solo practice once I have obtained enough experience. I would be willing to do plenty of volunteer, pro bono work, etc. to gain experience.

I live in the GTA and I believe my areas of interest would be employment law, human rights law, or LTB. I normally work 5 days on 4 off, and on work days I still have a few hours free. Not too worried about the financial aspect here; I’m fine with taking a bit of a loss for the first few years, and after that I’m happy if my practice pays for itself plus a little extra.

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I can co sign this. Had my interview 2 weeks ago. I walked in very nervous but they were very welcoming. Just prepare as best as you can, every question asked was somewhere on this forum so I knew what I wanted to say to each question but I didn't stick to a script. Smile and be human! They are very relatable which I didn't believe until I actually met them.

I don't want to get into the specific details of the situation under discussion, but I want to make a general point about how students so often misread the employment market, and this is a great example of how that happens.
Applying for a job is not the same as applying for admission to a program at school. It's not the same as applying for an award. It's not the same as applying for accommodation for the LSAT, or from some office at your school. In all of those other cases and examples, the people considering you for admission, awards, accommodation, etc. are all concerned about being fair and objective. In all of those cases, the process matters, and everyone agrees it matters. This is not to say that bias and subjectivity are entirely eliminated. It happens, sometimes, and it's unavoidable. But the process is at least designed to avoid it and everyone agrees that's the way it should be.
An employer doesn't care about any of that. They just need to get the job done. At a large employer you may have at least some cushioning from the immediate realities of the workplace if a decision is being made in a formal HR process. But even there, they're aware of the realities. At a smaller employer, it's completely in your face at all times.
Speaking as an employer, if I'm looking at a candidate who has a sympathetic situation at home, I'm not thinking "what a shame they couldn't show their full potential in school" I'm thinking "how often is this going to fuck me in the future if I hire this person?" Now you can all yell and scream that I'm a terrible person for thinking this. But I have very few people to rely on. And everything my employee isn't getting done is one more problem for me, personally, to solve. And I don't imagine there's a single employer out there who is saintly enough to just ignore that factor and to hire the more "deserving" candidate, even though there's a fair chance the more deserving candidate is going to make their own personal and professional lives suck over an extended period of time.
If you can't understand what I just wrote, or you think it's somehow wrong, it's because you're still thinking like a kid. You imagine the world owes you things, and it doesn't. I'm going to hire someone who will help me do my job and make me money. I'm not a social agency. I may feel personal sympathy for certain factors in your life. And I'm not saying I'm going to turf an existing employee the second they have health or family problems. But you think I'm going to willingly create that situation for myself if I don't have to? You're insane.
I don't have a perfect answer for how to navigate the marketplace if you are dealing with factors like that. But if you at least maintain the appropriate attitude towards what's really going on, you'll do a better job of sounding reasonable, mature, and realistic about it. You never, ever, ever want to sound like "here's why I haven't been able to perform, so please take this into account when evaluating my poor performance." You want to sound like "here's everything I am doing and will continue to do to ensure that my personal issues aren't stopping me from getting the job done, and done well." It isn't a perfect answer. There is no perfect answer. But at least you won't sound like a kid who thinks that the coach has to play every player on the team just to be fair - even the ones who suck. The real world just isn't like that.

I spent a couple days at a low T1 law school in the US before leaving to come back to Canada and apply for this current cycle.
Your success depends on what school you attend, it’s location (in terms of a given legal market), and your ability to do well in law school. You should consider that the US legal market, as a whole, is heavily saturated in comparison to Canada. From what I’ve been told, jobs can be hard to come by — even if your a US citizen with ties to a given area. You should also consider the immigration system in the USA, which is family (not skills) based and therefore harder to break into even if you do well in law school. Firms will most likely look at you different if you’re not a US citizen or a PR — you’ll haft to stand out. To be eligible for work, you’ll need to get a firm to sponsor you for a H1B which is quite costly, and as such, not a small favor on the part of the firm or you’ll need to use the TN visa under NAFTA. I’m not sure how firms will view a foreigner working on a TN. I’m a little more pessimistic in this regard as well.
In my case, I came back home after attending orientation because the risks seemed to far outpace the potential rewards. I wasn’t at a T14 and neither was I in a large legal market like LA, New York, Houston, Chicago, Washington DC, etc. Even though I was given a full tuition scholarship +, I didn’t like the feeling that it was highly possible, indeed perhaps probable, that I’d finish law school without a job in the USA and then hold a subpar law degree for use in Canada which would have to be upgraded via the NCAs.
I agree with the general consensus on this topic, if you’re not going to a T14 school and you’re not a US citizen, don’t attend law school in the USA. You’ll hear stories of people who made it, but remember that there is an even larger number of people who didn’t and consider it a huge mistake.
What school are you thinking about attending?